Back to Black

It feels like only yesterday when outlets shocked the world with the news that multiple award-winning musician Amy Winehouse had been found dead at the age of 27. Several attempts at making a film have been made before that have never followed through, and there was a considerable amount of backlash upon the announcement that there would be a biopic covering the life of the much-loved singer so soon after her passing, but through the hard work of director Sam Taylor-Johnson, here we are.

Back to Black casts its eye over Winehouse’s tumultuous relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil during her rise to prominence and eventual stardom. The period of her life inspired her to write and record the groundbreaking album that won her five Grammy awards, but what transpires in this film places less emphasis on the musical genius of Winehouse and the tabloid snapshots that came to decorate and dominate her life.

Take nothing away from Marisa Abela, who gives everything in her performance as Winehouse. Abela is best not when singing and performing the various musical numbers, but rather when she is given the opportunity to show Amy’s personality and conversation style. As she wades through the typical dialogue we come to expect in a biographical movie, she nails the musician’s attitude, her mannerisms and her tone of voice. Initially, the whole façade is cringeworthy to the maximum degree, although you do get more accustomed to the singing the more time passes. Likewise, Jack O’Connell breathes further life into the lacklustre screenplay as the spunky Blake, luring Amy in with his character and charm.

But this is where the problems lie. Taylor-Johnson is arguably one of the best-placed directors to tackle this project, having had previous success in the musician-based biographical drama department with Nowhere Boy in 2009, but Back to Black misses one vital element: the truth. Blake, the man who openly admitted to introducing Amy to heroin, is practically a saint in this movie, and one that through the muscular O’Connell appears to hit the gym more than the crack pipe. Eddie Marsan plays Amy’s dad Mitch and is also presented as Dad of the Year; hardly surprising when the Winehouse estate had a say in the creation of this movie.

Rather than exploring the talents of Winehouse and how she came to make her award-winning music, we instead see her go from being told she wouldn’t make it in America by her record label, to having the best-selling album of the year in a matter of seconds, without really exploring how it happened. Amy roams the streets of Camden drunk from alcohol and love when we know the demons that haunted the singer were likely worse than that. The movie does little more than follow the traditional check-box procedures of a biopic and is not nearly daring enough.

It is almost blasphemous to create a movie about one of the greatest singers of the 21^st century, renowned for her iconic singing ability, and not actually use her voice. It simply feels like it is just too soon for a biopic about Amy Winehouse and Back to Black isn’t the tribute that anyone would have hoped it would be or the singer deserves. In fact, it is a far cry from it.

Guy Lambert

Back to Black is released nationwide on 12^th April 2024.

Watch the trailer for Back to Black here: